*.fiction

Monday, 11 August 2008

The Rising - Chapter 18: Breaking News

The atmosphere in the room was almost tangible. Jane had it in for me, probably with good reason, and she wasn’t afraid to show it. Dave broke the silence that had hung in the air since her last comment to me.

‘Let’s see if there’s anything about all this on the news,’ he said, and turned on the television. He flicked over to a news channel and I was taken aback by the image in front of us. I looked at Dave, who was staring at the television, open-mouthed in astonishment.

A news reporter was standing in front of a police station that had crime scene tape all around it. Our police station. The red banner headline across the bottom of the screen said ‘BREAKING NEWS: BRUTAL ATTACK ON POLICE STATION. 6 DEAD, 1 MISSING.’

‘We are getting reports that just a few hours ago, an armed man entered the police station by force and killed almost everyone inside. Apart from the prisoners in the holding cells, the only survivor, a female who cannot be named at this time, appears to have been taken from the cell where she was being held.’

I looked over at Doctor Owen, who turned to me with a look on his face that was a mixture of shock and anger.

‘It’s Emily, isn’t it?’ he said, ‘They’ve taken my wife, haven’t they?’

‘But who took her?’ Jane said, ‘We don’t know if it was the vampires or The Brotherhood. We need to get someone over there and find out.’

‘I’ll do it,’ said Dave.

‘Are you sure?’ I asked, ‘You’ve already helped us out by putting us up here. You don’t have to get involved.’

‘My holiday’s pretty much over now anyway. I’m supposed to go back to work the day after tomorrow, but it looks like there’s not much of a job to go back to. I’ll do my best to get in on this investigation. You need someone on the inside with the police and with the state you’re in at the moment, you’re not exactly up to the job.’

‘Good,’ Jane said assertively, ‘it sounds like we’re starting to come up with a plan. While Dave is checking out the police station, Doctor Owen and I will recover the samples and documents we need. I take it you know where they’re all held?’

Doctor Owen nodded.

‘Don’t worry,’ Jane continued, ‘We’ll get her back. Remember, we found you, didn’t we?’

‘What about me and Skinner?’ I asked.

Skinner spoke before Jane could jump down my throat.

‘I’ll take him to get registered,’ he said.

‘What do you mean?’ I asked.

‘We need to register you as a vampire. The vampires have scouts trawling the city looking for new vampires. When they pick them up, they take them to a secure location and put them on the books. They’re very particular about tracking the size of their population. It means we won’t run into any trouble in the future if they’ve got you on their records.’

‘I’m not sure about that,’ I said, feeling very wary of offering myself up to the vampires.

‘If nothing else, it’ll be somewhere to hide out until the end of the day. We need to stay out of the sun and you know we can’t stay here for long.’

‘Sounds like we’ve got a plan then, people,’ Jane said, ‘We’ll head into the city and split up.’

As Jane spoke, I was still weighing up Skinner’s plan in my head. Then it hit me. I knew why I’d removed Commander North’s head and brought it with us.

‘Give me the head,’ I said to Jane, looking her in the eye, ‘I know what to do with it.’

Buy Rebirth and The Rising in print

Friday, 8 August 2008

The Rising - Chapter 17: Neutralising The Base

General Graham picked up the microphone for the public address system. His voice echoed all over the base. There was nowhere his men couldn’t hear him.

‘This is General Graham. Prepare for evacuation. We will be leaving in ten minutes. Neutralise all infected areas and destroy all remaining samples. Upload all data from local computers to the global servers. Repeat: we will be leaving in ten minutes. If you’re not top-side by then, you’re walking home.’

With that announcement, everyone doubled their efforts. Deep inside the base, the soldiers who were sorting through the remnants of the regional headquarters stood aside as their squad mates fired up their flame throwers. One by one, huge bursts of fire engulfed the laboratories, the morgue and every corner where blood had been spilled.

The bodies of the victims had all been removed but there were still pieces of flesh and limbs dotted around the base, which started to crackle and fill the corridors with the stench of burning meat as they were roasted by the retreating soldiers.

The men inside the operations room were hastily removing all data from the local systems and transferring it to the global servers, where it could be accessed by anyone within The Brotherhood or the World Health Organisation. As they finished and left their stations, a soldier with a flame thrower arrived to neutralise the places that Captain Stein’s bloody and disfigured body had come into contact with.

Meanwhile, Captain Stein was being carried out of the base on a stretcher and guarded by a large group of soldiers, all ready to fill him with silver bullets if he made a wrong move.

‘Put him in the lead chopper. He’s coming with me,’ the general shouted to his men.

Stein lay still, complying with the wishes of his aggressors but that didn’t stop them jabbing him in the back with their rifles as they loaded him into the helicopter, just to make sure he knew who was in charge.

All equipment that had been sitting on the tarmac above them was being moved back inside the base. One day The Brotherhood may need to use this facility again and it was necessary to keep any evidence of their tactical capability from this location out of reach of satellite surveillance. There wasn’t enough time to arrange the equipment neatly so the soldiers outside the base dumped the crates inside the main doors as quickly as they could.

General Graham looked at his watch. ‘Ten minutes are up, people. Let’s go,’ he shouted to the soldiers still inside. He hit the button to lock down the base. The siren sounded and the main doors began to close. Everyone still inside ran up the ramp and through the doors before they closed with a loud metallic clang, sealing the scene of one of The Brotherhood’s greatest failures. It was their second in as many days.

The pile of bodies at the end of the tarmac was burning furiously, sending a huge cloud of black smoke into the heavens above. General Graham picked up the radio as he boarded the lead helicopter.

‘Good work, everyone. All other choppers head for Hartley House. Make that your base of operations. We need to stay close to the city in the coming days.’

He put down the radio and turned to the pilot. ‘We’re heading for Lake Arcadia.’

‘Yes sir,’ the pilot said and fired the engine into life. The sound of the rotating blades grew louder and louder until the heavy gunship lifted off the ground and headed in the opposite direction to the other helicopters.

General Graham turned round and looked Captain Stein in the eye. ‘Keep a close watch over him,’ he said to his men.

‘I’m not exactly in a fit state to run away from you,’ Stein said.

‘Maybe not, but you’d better help us find the doctor, and fast. The sun will be coming up in a few hours so you haven’t got much time.’

Buy Rebirth and The Rising in print

Wednesday, 6 August 2008

Review: Cliffhanger (Blu-ray)

My review of Cliffhanger is now online at DVDActive.

Cliffhanger is an exciting movie and most of the stunts still look good in this digital age. This release is well-timed, coming when Stallone is enjoying another career renaissance and there is talk of a follow-up to this movie. The quality of the presentation is slightly better than I was expecting and while the extras might not offer anything new, those of you with high definition capabilities who don't own the movie on DVD should think about picking up this release.

The Rising - Chapter 16: Introductions

Everyone said their introductions and Dave invited us inside his cabin. It was exactly how I thought it would be. The entire structure was made from wood and a log fire was crackling in the corner. It was a small, functional place but probably as close to the dictionary definition of cosy as you could get, with the orange glow from the fire and our exhaustion making it the most inviting place I had seen in a long time.

We set the heavy boxes down and Dave told us all to sit down by the fire. We didn’t need a second invitation. Even though the days had been very hot, the night air was cold, especially if you were hiking through the hills in a shirt that had been ripped open by someone who wanted to tear your guts out.

I saw Dave open a suitcase that was lying under the stairs. He walked over with a polo shirt in his hand and threw it to me.

‘Here you go, partner,’ he said, ‘Can’t have you wandering around like that.’

‘Thanks Dave,’ I said, a little touched that I didn’t even need to ask him for a new shirt.

‘Yeah, no problem. I’m putting the kettle on. Who wants coffee?’

We all accepted the offer and as Dave made the coffees at the kitchen worktop, we recounted our story so far. We told him everything, from the bomb that was planted at Mantek to stop Doctor Owen’s research, to the attack on the freeway, our escape from Hartley House and the discoveries we made about vampire anatomy at The Brotherhood’s base just hours earlier. Of course, this included me getting bitten by a vampire.

‘What the hell?’ Dave exclaimed when I told him about my condition, ‘If anyone else had told me that I would have told them they were full of shit and sent them on their way. So aren’t you supposed to try and drink my blood or something?’

‘It doesn’t quite work like that,’ I said, ‘I’ve been taking the treatment Doctor Owen has been developing. It’s not a permanent cure but it keeps the hunger at bay for a few hours at a time.’

He stood in silence for a moment, taking everything in. ‘Well, Tom, this is the last time I go on holiday and leave you to take a case on by yourself.’

We both laughed at the unbelievable situation. I heard Doctor Owen and Skinner laugh as well, and saw a smile break on Jane’s face. Dave handed out the cups of coffee. I took a sip and realised it had been a long time since I’d eaten anything. I wondered whether my body was running purely on the blood I drank from Captain Stein’s neck or if it was just our situation keeping me going. I asked Dave if he had anything to eat and he popped some bread in the toaster.

‘This is a lot to take in,’ Dave said, thinking aloud, ‘so what do we do now? I take it this Brotherhood are going to be looking for you?’

‘That’s right,’ said Jane, ‘We have to assume they were tracking our helicopter so that doesn’t give us long before they find us here. We have to keep moving.’

Doctor Owen piped up. ‘Last night I received a call from Doctor Forrest, my boss and research partner. He’s gone missing and wouldn’t tell me where he was but he did tell me I have to recover some samples that we have stored in different facilities around the city, then we can meet up with him. He said he has a plan for moving our work forward.’

‘So we need to find this guy, don’t we?’ Dave asked.

‘Yes, but I don’t think that requires all of us,’ said Jane.

‘I agree,’ I said, trying to find common ground with her, ‘we need to direct our efforts.’

‘Good idea, Tom,’ she said, and the tone of her voice turned darker, ‘You can work out what the hell we’re supposed to do with the severed head you brought with us.’

Buy Rebirth and The Rising in print

Monday, 4 August 2008

The Rising - Chapter 15: Low On Supplies

Roxy stood in Marcus’ office, debating with him their tactics regarding the imminent arrival of the Lord Chancellor. The way they saw it, the Lord Chancellor was coming to kill them. They had murdered his deputy and he was going to have his revenge. The thought of running away never even entered their minds. They knew he would do everything in his power to track them down and make sure they had a fate worse than death.

In the meantime, they had to do all they could to impress him with their tactical capabilities when he arrived. They knew that if the Lord Chancellor saw that the Rising had begun and it was they who were responsible for its ongoing success, they would have a chance of being spared. This meant completing one, or preferably both, of the tasks they had set themselves.

Get the doctor back

Complete tomorrow’s mission successfully and move onto the next phase of the plan.

Doctor Forrest was confident the instructions he had given Doctor Owen would lead him back into their hands. After all, Doctor Owen saw no reason not to trust him. If he hadn’t figured out that he’d been working with a vampire for many years, he was unlikely to piece together the clues over the next twenty-four hours.

They turned their attention to planning the next mission. They stood over the plans once more, marking the best spots to place their men and weighing up potential losses.

‘Any losses will occur on impact,’ said Marcus, ‘We should expect a loss of ten to twenty percent.’

‘That all depends on the skills of our men on the inside,’ said Roxy, ‘but we shouldn’t have any problems from The Brotherhood. All indications from our surveillance teams are that they are putting all their efforts into recovering the doctor.’

‘The doctor’s escape is a fortunate diversion, and with him running around the city looking for the samples Doctor Forrest has sent him to recover, we shouldn’t have any problems executing the plan.’

There was a knock at the door and Marcus shouted for the visitor to enter. Doctor Forrest opened the door and quickly stepped inside.

‘Doctor Forrest, is everything okay?’ Roxy asked.

‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but I heard you’ve captured Doctor Owen’s wife.’

‘That’s correct. Is that a problem?’

‘We’ve met each other a few times at work functions so I don’t want her to know about the work I’m doing here. I realise the holding cell is close to my lab so I’m going to remain in my lab with the door closed unless absolutely necessary.’

‘Don’t worry,’ said Roxy, ‘she will be confined to her room until we get Doctor Owen back. By that time it will be too late to keep any secrets.’

‘Thank you. There’s one more thing. I’m running out of the treatment. I was expecting us to have access to another supply by now but with yesterday’s complications I have only two days’ supply left. I have a stash at my house, the one where you were holding the doctor.’

‘Jackson is here so I’ll send him out to pick up the supplies for you. It shouldn’t take any more than a few hours.’

‘Thanks, Roxy. It’ll be much easier once we are able to raid the stockpiles.’

‘That time isn’t far away, Doctor.’

Buy Rebirth and The Rising in print

Friday, 1 August 2008

The Rising - Chapter 14: The Cabin

I breathed a sigh of relief as we reached the top of the second hill and took in the view ahead. A massive lake lay in the valley below, its surface shimmering in the cool night breeze. The full moon reflected in the lake, painting a scene of serenity before us, completely at odds with the crisis we were struggling to deal with.

We were under no delusions. We were in mortal danger. We knew The Brotherhood must have been tracking the helicopter and now that it had stopped moving, they almost certainly had a fix on our location.

But how did I know to bring us here?

I had no recollection of telling the others to bring us here. I knew that Dave would help us but the way I told them was very disconcerting. Sarah always said I talked to her when I was asleep. Sometimes it was complete nonsense but other times she said she could hold a conversation with me. According to Sarah I would tell her things in my sleep that I would never have thought to say in my waking life. This made me wonder if the reason for us being here was due to my nocturnal foibles or another new talent I had inherited from the vampire that had bitten me.

The vampire that sucked my blood just last night.

It felt so long ago. We had been through so much since my old friend Greg Myers had turned into a vampire and bitten me, but our journey was far from over.

We stopped for a second and looked across the lake at the cabins in the distance. Tiny dots of light indicated that most of the cabins were inhabited.

‘Not far to go,’ Skinner said optimistically.

‘Are you sure we can trust him?’ Agent Simpson asked.

‘Of course,’ I replied immediately, ‘he’s my partner. I’d trust him with my life.’

‘I’m still not sure,’ she said, ‘He’s a cop. We can’t trust anyone any more.’ She was still being cold with me. I was worried that we’d end up taking our frustrations out on each other, when we’d worked so well together so far.

‘Well, look at it this way, Jane,’ I said, ‘We don’t have much choice, do we?’

‘No Tom, we don’t. But that’s because you brought us here.’

Doctor Owen walked ahead of us. ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘we won’t get anywhere standing around bitching.’

The doctor led the way down the hill to the edge of the lake and we followed it round to the path that led us through a small, tidy collection of young trees to the cabin complex.

‘Which cabin is he in?’ Skinner asked.

‘Sixty-six.’

We walked along the road that followed the side of the lake and counted down the numbers of the cabins we passed.

‘It’s that one up ahead,’ Skinner said.

I saw the cabin Skinner was talking about. The lights were on and there were two cars outside, one on the drive and one on the road in front. As we approached, a group emerged from the front door and walked down the drive.

I turned round to face the rest of the group. ‘Wait,’ I said.

‘What’s wrong?’ Jane asked.

‘He’s with his wife and kids.’

‘So what?’

‘So they don’t need us wading in, that’s so what. He’s getting rid of his family to help us out. Let him say goodbye to them first.’

We were so focused on finding shelter that we were in danger of doing it at the expense of everything else, including social graces. With torn clothes and dirty and bloody faces, we would have been fooling ourselves if we had expected to be welcomed with open arms.

‘Remember,’ I announced to everyone, ‘Dave doesn’t know why we’re here. He doesn’t know who any of you are and look at the state of us. No sense in giving his kids nightmares.’

Everyone kept silent but I knew they agreed with me.

Dave was in the same position I was in yesterday. He had no concept of vampires in the real world. I had a lot to tell him but I needed him to take it all in quickly if he was going to help us.

We watched Dave’s wife load their kids into the car. She kissed him goodbye then got into the car and drove away from their cabin. I hadn’t seen a through road behind us so I had assumed she would drive away in the opposite direction but she was heading right for us. As the car passed our motley crew of strays, her stare cut through the darkness and hit me right in the eye.

She knows we’re the ones who’ve ruined her holiday.

‘Wait here,’ I said.

‘Why?’ asked Jane.

‘Like I said, he doesn’t know any of you. It’ll be best if I go ahead and talk to him one on one.’

Once again, silent agreement washed over our team and I realised we’d have to work on our communication skills. Maybe it’s just because we’re all tired, I thought and pushed that concern to the back of my mind.

Dave had gone back inside the cabin. I walked along the road, up the drive and knocked on his front door. He opened it and paused for a second when he saw me.

‘Holy shit, Tom. What the hell happened to you?’

‘Make me a strong cup of coffee and I’ll tell you all about it.’

‘Will do. Didn’t you say there were others with you?’

‘They’re waiting round the corner. I thought I’d better check you’re okay with this first.’

‘Don’t worry about it, partner. I couldn’t leave you wandering the hills all night, especially looking like that. Bring them in and I’ll put the kettle on.’

Buy Rebirth and The Rising in print